Press release

In true fascist fashion, Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon have once again shown, with greater fervor, that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) is disinterested in a just and lasting peace.

“The plot is becoming predictable. Dependent on the dictates of US-loyal military lapdogs, Duterte has set the stage ready for martial law extension and its possible expansion. The AFP has largely influenced the direction of the Duterte administration, made palatable under the veil of ‘national security.’ The three main operators of militarism - DND chief Delfin Lorenzana, AFP chief Eduardo Año, and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon - is driving the Duterte government in a collision course against people’s rights,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay during a protest action at Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame.

Rodolfo Tagalog Sr., father of peasant brutally killed in Milagros, Masbate, Bicol, filed a complaint against the Government of the Philippines (GRP) at the GRP-NDFP Joint Monitoring Committee today, July 19, 2017. Rodolfo Sr.’s son, Rodolfo Jr., was killed by composite elements of the 2nd Infantry Battalion - Philippine Army (IBPA) and 9th Infantry Division last April 15, 2017. Rodolfo Sr. was accompanied by human rights workers from Karapatan.

“President Duterte’s call for Congress to extend martial law in Mindanao until the end of 2017 is like exhorting a mad cabal of harbingers of impunity to inflict and applaud further grave violations on people’s rights and civil liberties,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, on Malacanang’s announcement that Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law until December 31 of this year.

“Their release is only partial remedy to the injustices inflicted upon political prisoners by the State,” said Karapatan deputy secretary general Jigs Clamor during a mobilization in front of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) on July 18, 2017.

“The reinstatement of superintendent Marvin Marcos to police service and his non-indictment on murder charges on the rub-out of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. is a classic example of impunity under the Duterte administration. Encouraging cops who spit on the right to due process to continue doing so and rewarding them with immunity from grave criminal charges is the order of the day,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, on the recent announcements of President Rodrigo Duterte regarding Marcos and his war on drugs.

“We are mothers,
daughters, friends, nieces, relatives who have lost our beloved to State
repression. What we have is our strength, our solidarity, and our voices
combined together to arduously push the call for justice. We refuse to accept
that our loved ones have simply become mere statistics, normalized in the
everyday frenzy of gunshots, bombings, arrests and violations,” said Hustisya Chairperson
Evangeline Hernandez, during the gathering of kin of victims of drug-related
and politically motivated extrajudicial killings, political prisoners and desaparecidos at UP Diliman
on July 8, 2017.

Ten
political prisoners – National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant
Emeterio Antalan, Ricardo Solangon, Joel Ramada, Apolonio Barado, Jose Navarro,
Generoso Rolida, Arnulfo Boates, Manolito Matricio, Josue Ungsod, and Sonny
Marbella – were granted conditional presidential pardon, in line with the peace
talks between the NDFP and the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines, and were released from the New
Bilibid Prison on the evening of July 6, 2017.

"Duterte's threats to arrest those who oppose martial law in Mindanao and his orders to the military to kill civilians reek of his authoritarian tendencies and his propensity to commit further violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. While he fully lends his ears to militarist thugs such as Defense Secretary Lorenzana and Gen. Eduardo Ano, he has turned a deaf and callous ear to the cries of the Moro peoples calling for the lifting of martial law and an end to aerial strikes. With US troops and the military as his only sources of information on the ground, how sure is he that everything these fascist institutions report is indeed true, when they are one of the foremost purveyors of fake news?" said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General, on the latest pronouncements of Pres. Duterte last Saturday.